Band:
Judas Priest & The Scorpians Venue:
Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle, UK Date:
27 March 2005
For many of the crowd tonight this is the start of a year when many
of their favourite
bands have decided to dig out their back catalogues and give what a lot of
their fans have been longing for, too see them perform one more time.
With
the likes of Alice Cooper, Twisted Sister, Y&T, Seb Bach and the two bands
tonight all treading the boards once again this year, 2005 should be a
very nostalgic year indeed.
First up are Germanys finest export
The Scorpions, who still manage to deliver despite their years
, one of the
finest and high quality rock shows you will ever hear. Even though they
were limited to just
one hour onstage they still managed to cram as many of their
finest tracks into the show these including:
'The Zoo', 'Bad Boys Running
Wild', 'We'll Burn The Sky',
'Lovin'
You Sunday Morning', 'Blackout', 'Big City Nights', 'Rock you Like A
Hurricane' and many more.
The
mighty Klaus Mien still sounding great and parading round the stage like a
man twenty years younger,
with
his usual heavily accented vocals stirring the crowd up into a frenzy.
(I can tell you the age of most of them, this was indeed a mean feat).
There
were a number of songs that were omitted from tonight's set that
the fans would have liked including, but with only an hour to play
, it was obvious that they couldn’t play every ones favourite.
However, there was enough played to please even the biggest cynic.
Let's
hope that they use this tour as a platform for a headlining tour of their
own in the not too distant future.
And so to the main event and the long awaited reunion of the Metal
Gods Judas Priest. As the band hit the stage it was like stepping back in time to see
this incarnation, (to many the only true line up), of Priest reunited and
together on the stage.
As the first few chords of 'The Hellion'/'Electric Eye'
were blasted out by KK Downing and Glen Tipton, the crowd were affixed on
the rest of the stage as the voice of Rod Halford was heard but the man
himself was nowhere to be seen.
Finally he appeared from a trap door on a platform
high above the stage looking like a grand master vampire, dressed head to
foot in leather and studs. With a long flowing leather coat also heavily
studded, he wouldn’t have been amiss on the set of the movie 'Blade'. The
band was now complete much to the delight of the crowd.
The new
album took a back seat for tonight's show with only the single
'Revolution', 'Deal With The Devil', 'Hellrider' and 'Judas is Rising' being
played tonight. BUT, the fans had come to hear the classics and
that’s what they got. With a setlist that included tracks that I hadn’t heard
live for such a long long time, these included 'Metal Gods', 'The Ripper',
'Touch of Evil', 'Hot Rockin', 'Breaking The Law', an excellent acoustic
version 'Diamonds and Rust', 'Victim Of Changes', 'The Green Manolishi' and
'Painkiller'.
They stormed through the set and with Halford's vocals sounding
as strong as I've ever heard them, the whole band were tighter than one of
Kyle's corsets.
We all knew that the encore would include Halford
entering stage right on a motorbike, but we still all cheered with all our
might like it was the first time we'd ever seen him do so as he did. As he sat
astride it belting out the metal anthem 'Hell Bent For Leather' the crowd
were by this time at fever pitch.
Then it was on to a rousing rendition of 'Living After Midnight',
which again sent the crowd into a frenzy, before finally finishing off with
'You got another thing Coming'.
As Priest shows go this had to be one of the
finest I have seen over the years. Let's hope once again that they are
Unleashed In The North East soon.
